Some weeks ago I was explaining to a friend why I will never watch Saving Private Ryan. To me it seemed pretty self evident. I regard Spielberg as a hack, and I detest gratuitous violence. I would define gratuitous rather broadly with regard to film. The Cinema's propensity to depict graphic images of violence and sex is its cross to bear. Sex and violence are only the most prominent cliches a visionary film artist must overcome. Many filmmakers who would call themselves visionary mistakenly believe that the path to overcoming is through immersion. My aforementioned friend refers to the first twenty minutes of Private Ryan as “sublime,” and I suspect that Rob Zombie, who has churned out another Halloween remake, would like savvy viewers to say that about his torture movies as well.
What exactly is measured by the degree of violence I can tolerate? Is it my intellect? Is it my coolness? Like Quentin Tarentino, Zombie would probably say that I'm dumb if I don't understand how cleverly he uses violent imagery. If he thinks that he is making “classic slasher films,” whatever that means, Zombie may be right, because the point of the genre has always been to create for teenagers, or anyone else with an adolescent mentality, a carnival spook-house. I imagine Zombie thinks he is making his audience confront their fears, and therein lies the value. The problem is that Zombie's fears are the fear of an adolescent boy. No. I am misrepresenting adolescent boys. Zombie's fears are the fears that adolescent boys use to distract themselves from their real fears.
I fail to see a substantive difference between the violence he portrays and that which Spielberg portrays.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Happy Labor Day!
I grow weary of the ideological debate everyone else seems to be energized by these days. It is particularly sad to see my liberal friends slide ever deeper into the us vs. them quicksand. It is an illusion. This country is run by business interests and nothing besides. The corporate masters are interested only in dollars, and in that fundamental sense they are a-political. They are disciples of Milton Friedman before they are anything else. This is not a Cabal by design, but the system is very good at protecting the rich by constantly pitting superficially opposing sides against one another in the media and in the government.
Consider that almost every Hollywood actor, producer, writer, director; every so-called (by Fox News) liberal journalist or reporter all serve media conglomerates. This by the way is the heart of my effort to constantly debunk mainstream film. It's nice that George Clooney and Julia Roberts do a lot of charity work, but their films (their REAL work?) espouse a different ideology. It is nice that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas say the “right” things in their films, but the very style of those films espouses a different ideology. None of them or their peers would ever make the following accusation, and I doubt many would understand the implications it, but if you think that there is a meaningful difference between the CEO of Wal-Mart or Nike and the CEO of Dreamworks or Miramax, you are fooling yourself.
The point is that the system would fall apart if either side was to fully win their apparent war. Further, the conclusion is that neither side can ever win, because the system seems to be perfect. So when liberals talk of this country turning into Hitler's Germany, I think they are missing the big picture. Do they not realize that the right wing is also making that claim? Perhaps liberals would say they are merely using it as rhetoric, but that claim would only betray a fundamental lack of respect for the people they supposedly wish to help via education and information.
These doomsday predictions are distracting whether they come form the left or right. Our situation is dire enough without worrying about the possibility of a fascists takeover. I suspect, in fact, that we find ourselves trapped in a system perhaps too perfect to change. Surely the unshakeable, resilient nature of the beast is more frightening than an ideological structure that is unstable enough to allow or even encourage change? We may not have a way out of this.
From Rome to the Nazi State it strikes me that all comparisons of the United States to historical empires are inaccurate. The picture that I am starting to see more clearly all the time, is that there has never been anything like America. Perhaps it is not merely the nation, for there has never been a power structure like the one that rules us – there has never been multi-national corporate power; and there has never been a media conglomeration that walks hand in hand with this power in the guise of its antipode – there has never been a Hollywood. I simply do not think anyone knows how this ends or if it even can, and that should be a lot more terrifying than the remote possibility of fascism.
Consider that almost every Hollywood actor, producer, writer, director; every so-called (by Fox News) liberal journalist or reporter all serve media conglomerates. This by the way is the heart of my effort to constantly debunk mainstream film. It's nice that George Clooney and Julia Roberts do a lot of charity work, but their films (their REAL work?) espouse a different ideology. It is nice that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas say the “right” things in their films, but the very style of those films espouses a different ideology. None of them or their peers would ever make the following accusation, and I doubt many would understand the implications it, but if you think that there is a meaningful difference between the CEO of Wal-Mart or Nike and the CEO of Dreamworks or Miramax, you are fooling yourself.
The point is that the system would fall apart if either side was to fully win their apparent war. Further, the conclusion is that neither side can ever win, because the system seems to be perfect. So when liberals talk of this country turning into Hitler's Germany, I think they are missing the big picture. Do they not realize that the right wing is also making that claim? Perhaps liberals would say they are merely using it as rhetoric, but that claim would only betray a fundamental lack of respect for the people they supposedly wish to help via education and information.
These doomsday predictions are distracting whether they come form the left or right. Our situation is dire enough without worrying about the possibility of a fascists takeover. I suspect, in fact, that we find ourselves trapped in a system perhaps too perfect to change. Surely the unshakeable, resilient nature of the beast is more frightening than an ideological structure that is unstable enough to allow or even encourage change? We may not have a way out of this.
From Rome to the Nazi State it strikes me that all comparisons of the United States to historical empires are inaccurate. The picture that I am starting to see more clearly all the time, is that there has never been anything like America. Perhaps it is not merely the nation, for there has never been a power structure like the one that rules us – there has never been multi-national corporate power; and there has never been a media conglomeration that walks hand in hand with this power in the guise of its antipode – there has never been a Hollywood. I simply do not think anyone knows how this ends or if it even can, and that should be a lot more terrifying than the remote possibility of fascism.
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